BEING A GEOBABE: SEVERAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT WOMEN IN THE GEOSCIENCES

A Chihuly sculpture and the needle in Seattle, WA!

Lucky me, I’m celebrating the end of my full-time consulting job with a trip! My husband took me to Seattle for one of his conferences, so I get to relax poolside and explore the city while he works! Well, we’re finally going to do some hiking this weekend, so this is finally going to start feeling like a vacation for him too!

Taking a break from all the relaxing, I decided to write about geobabes, that is, women who are into the geosciences.  

The term geobabe originally came from my group of friends at my college’s Geology Department. It stuck with me because I appreciate that it is a fun and simple way to celebrate women and femininity in a traditionally male and masculine academic field. I have to say, though, that women are doing well and are strong in the geosciences. At the same time, we are still in a world where gender norms still affect all aspects in life. As a geologist working up a career, there are a lot of women in the field that mentor me and I feel so lucky for that.

But there are other aspects of being a woman in geology that I have noticed as well. As much as I love the generally welcoming and open nature in the geologist community, I’m also noticing there is a distinctly masculine energy that pervades the culture and that there is little room for femininity. Some might say that many aspects of stereotypically feminine traits might be backwards or demeaning towards women, but as a self-proclaimed feminist, I like to think that women are truly free when they can land anywhere on the feminine-masculine spectrum that they want. Plus, if masculinity is venerated, or even simply allowed to be the standard, that’s still creating the underlying assumption that male-oriented behavior and culture is somehow superior like it’s the standard that everyone should follow.

For example, I love painting my nails, and I’ll often have my nails done out in the field while I’m working. I have received more than a handful of judgmental comments from coworkers, being mostly men, on how I work with my nails done and whether it’s appropriate. Always graciously, I respond with saying something like my painted nails don’t affect my safety or my work product. These interactions always make me a little uncomfortable because those around me are still so ready to look beyond my work’s credibility to focus on what makes me different. That critical eye makes it that much harder to gain a solid reputation in a woman’s career.

Just last week, a woman came up to be during a professional meeting and mentioned as an aside, as if she was trying to help me, that “my look” makes it harder for people to take me seriously. I was quite surprised by this comment, considering that I always maintain the highest degree of professionalism, and I asked her to elaborate. She literally said that I come off as a “pretty girl,” and apparently that’s not ok in her book. I think probably what she meant is that I’m very feminine, with long hair, makeup, and dresses, and it’s simply harder to take feminine women more seriously.

Coming away from that interaction was certainly difficult because it made me question my credibility in the eyes of others. Especially since it came from a woman, making me aware of how critical women can be of one another. But I came to the conclusion that I can’t change the assumptions that someone might make upon seeing me at face value. I’m very happy and comfortable being what some people might describe as “too feminine,” and as much as I want to be taken seriously, I’m going to get that respect through my work, not my looks.

So, to all my geobabes out there, in all your various glorious shades, stay strong and keep finding those cool rocks. 

HOLA, ER, I MEAN, HI: HOW TO JUGGLE AND STAY FLUENT IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES

On my honeymoon, sipping on Cuatro Sombras, the best coffee in Puerto Rico, in June of 2015. First time I used Spanish in a long time!

It’s been kind of an intense week! I just had my last full-time Friday at work, and now I’m unwinding at my grandfather’s house by the beach, visiting family that I haven’t seen for a long time, including my sis and mummy. When big change happens in life, it’s nice to relax with family and process it with them.

While I play a really competitive round of golf (the card game!) with my sis, I figured I would chat a bit about a question that I get asked quite a bit: How do I keep up fluency in my second and third languages?

I’ve spent an incredible seven years learning and becoming comfortably fluent in Arabic. I also studied Spanish for seven whopping years in primary school, so I naturally forgot most of it. Now that I’ll be studying groundwater in Chile, I’m trying to ramp up my proficiency in Spanish, all while trying to stay as fluent as possible in Arabic.

To be honest, it’s really difficult to keep up fluency when you’re outside of comfortably speaking the language every day. Leaving a place and the language that comes with it, words in that come more slowly all too quickly, and each interaction with a person in that language soon feels awkward. But I’m really happy to say that I’ve found a few simple, routine things that help with keeping up that multi-lingual fluency:

11.)   Read an article in the language every day. With my busy schedule, I am not a super consistent follower of this rule, but I do try to read at least an article in Spanish and another in Arabic every day if I have time, and it definitely does help with keeping common words fresh in my mind. If there are any words I don’t know, I just look them up in Google Translate. I don’t even make a note of the new words because I like to keep this daily routine easy simple, though if I did I’m sure I’d retain much more new vocabulary. I can do this with Spanish, so I’d recommend even beginner speakers in a language to try this out with very small articles. I usually prefer Al-Quds for Arabic, and El Mundo for Spanish. Reuters also provides translations to a lot of languages!

22.)   Find a language partner. I can’t stress how important it is to speak! And language partners are, in my opinion, the best way to practice speaking when you can’t get that constant exposure to the language. I usually set up a time once a week or every other week to meet with my language partner who wants to learn more English and whose native language I’m learning. We take an hour speaking in English about any topic we can carry a conversation in (I like to keep it interesting, so I suggest controversial subjects like abortion and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict!), and then we switch to the other language for an hour. There are a lot of online threads and interest groups online where you can find a language partner, so definitely do it!

33.)   Don’t depend on convenient native speakers. By that, I mean, if there’s someone I know who speaks Arabic but I usually speak to them in English, I don’t try to speak them in Arabic just because I feel like I haven’t spoken Arabic enough lately. This is especially true with S. We’re so used to speaking English to each other that it’s uncomfortable to make the switch to Arabic and it ends up not being very productive anyway. So, as a general rule of thumb, if you can switch to that language comfortably, then by all means do it, but don’t get frustrated with yourself or the other person if it doesn’t work out. Make language maintenance easy on yourself! J

These are the three big things that keep me fresh with my languages. I hope this helps! And remember, above all things, be patient and kind to yourself. Learning a language feels like such an achievement that it can feel so disheartening when a bit of that fluency starts fading, but that only means that your mind has been busy with other things. Plus you can easily get it back with a little bit of practice! Good luck!

IT'S GETTING REAL: RESEARCH MEETING ON ALTIPLANO WATER STUDIES

Happy Fourth of July! It’s been an activity-filled weekend for me. After helping a friend move, having a giant iftar, and then spending a sun-bleached day at New Hampshire’s Hampton Beach, I’m very ready for a day to just sit and chill for a while at my favorite coffee shop, the Thinking Cup on Boston’s Newbury Street.  Or, at least, I’ll chill until the fireworks happen! Anyway, this past Friday I drove to UMass Amherst to meet with a group of professors and students that work on my new research focus, so I figured I’d chat about that a bit.

The meeting was really interesting because students were presenting research on water-related topics for the Altiplano* region beyond just groundwater, which is going to be my research focus, so it gave me a more holistic perspective on all the complex factors that affect the area’s hydrologic system**. From MIT, one student was dating ancient corals to study the past levels of prehistoric lakes, which would give insight into how the area’s climate has changed over time; a second student uses satellite images to get a more moderate understanding of how the Altiplano’s current lakes fluctuate seasonally. So it sounds like, going back fifteen thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand years, that whole area of Chile used to be a much wetter and much more temperate climate than it is now. And, even though the region is generally very arid, the lakes dramatically fluctuate based on the little rain that comes.

A UMass student, who’s also working with my advisor, talked about his work on the chemistry of near-surface waters in the eastern area of the Atacama. It was really good to hear from him and made me excited to work with him in the future. Another student from Penn State shared her killer study on Calcium isotope variations throughout specific areas of the Altiplano to pose different questions about how the hydrologic system affect those isotope variations. Basically, the water’s chemistry suggests that the hydrologic system is incredibly complex, with mind-blowingly old water mixing with much newer water in different ways throughout the Altiplano.

Afterwards, my advisor invited us all to his place for snacks and drinks. He’s so chill. Below are some photos from the day.

Anyway, the closer I get to entering graduate school, it’s really nice to find different ways to get focused and excited about what I’m about to do. Just being able to spend an entire day to think deeply about how complicated my future research would be gave me a huge peace of mind, especially when I saw all these impressive graduate students. Just watching them unpack their ideas, to see how they delve so intricately into their focus, helped me to see how I could do that same.

For all the upcoming graduate students out there, if you’re feeling like you need to find that focus and refuel that positive energy, you can always start your education before it happens. Especially in academia for natural sciences, you can learn from students in your program, discuss project ideas with your potential future advisor, read articles on your field of interest, or chat with researchers outside your program. Never be embarrassed to ask a question, and if someone gives you the “academic stink eye” because they presumably think it’s a dumb question, ignore them and ask someone else. And, above all else, give yourself lots of positive energy!

Meeting Room at UMass

After-Meeting Chill Session with my Advisor!

*Altiplano refers to the northeastern area of Chile that is way lifted high above sea level. It’s an interesting area to study because precipitation is so rare there, since the altitude blocks moisture and also the weather systems curl around and away from the area thanks to climate-defining convection currents. 

** Hydrologic system refers to the process by which water cycles through the atmosphere, precipitates to become surface water, drains into the soil to become groundwater, enters surface waters, and then gets evaporated back into the atmosphere.